Ahoy there, matey! Our pirate ship had $\dfrac{5}{6}$ of a treasure chest full of gold. Then we plundered an enemy ship and took their $\dfrac{3}{8}$ of a treasure chest full of gold. How many treasure chests full of gold do we have now?
Solution: To find the total number of treasure chests that we have now, we need to add. $\frac{5}{6}$ $\frac{3}{8}$ Our pirate ship Enemy pirate ship Total amount of treasure chests ${\dfrac{5}{6}} + {\dfrac{3}{8}}$ Our denominators need to be the same so we can add. What is the least common multiple for the denominators $6$ and ${8}$ ? The least common multiple of $6$ and ${8}$ is ${24}$. $\dfrac{{5}\times 4}{{6}\times 4} = {\dfrac{20}{24}}$ $\dfrac{{3}\times 3}{{8}\times 3} = {\dfrac{9}{24}}$ Now, we can add our fractions. $\begin{aligned}{\dfrac{20}{24}} + {\dfrac{9}{24}} &= \dfrac{{20} + {9}}{24}\\\\ &= \dfrac{29}{24}\end{aligned}$ We now have $\dfrac{29}{24}$ treasure chests full of gold. This answer can also be written as $1 \dfrac{5}{24}$ treasure chests full of gold.